Umno tells Najib to go slow on snap polls
(The Malaysian Insider) – Umno warlords and key aides are telling Datuk Seri Najib Razak to delay any idea of snap polls to secure his personal mandate, saying he should not assume his personal popularity means that the party is more acceptable to the people.
The Umno president met the Johor Umno liaison committee members on Friday where some leaders shared their concerns over the party’s popularity.
“Datuk Seri Najib is popular, no doubt about it. But the party isn’t that popular in some states like it is in Johor,” an Umno official told The Malaysian Insider on condition of anonymity.
The prime minister’s approval ratings rose to 72 per cent in May, according to the last Merdeka Center survey, which said it was bolstered by a sense that the nation was headed in the right direction. The country’s economy grew 9.5 per cent in the first half of the year and the Najib administration believe that Malaysia can exceed its 6 per cent growth target for 2010.
The stronger economy has fuelled speculation that he might call for snap polls by the first half of 2011 although an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report last week dismissed such talk, saying the results of recent by-elections suggest that the electorate has become much more volatile especially with non-Malay voters.
Non-Malay voters have been turned off by calls from Malay rights groups such as Perkasa for Najib to keep affirmative action measures from the New Economic Policy (NEP) in his New Economic Model (NEM) which envisions an open high-income economy. Najib received the NEM final report last week and is due to release it next month.
The Malaysian Insider understands that Najib told the Umno leaders to cut the race rhetoric as Barisan Nasional (BN) has to be fair to all races in order to win the elections.
“He said the target is simple. BN has to be fair to win the elections,” the Umno leader added.
It is understood that the prime minister told the Umno leaders to “work the ground” and ensure that the BN lynchpin can get the votes to carry the ruling coalition through the 13th general elections which must be called by 2013.
“He knows the problems and told us to work the ground and added that Johor is fortunate to have many strong leaders,” said the leader from the Umno birthplace.
“He even said that other states are complaining why Johor has many leaders in the Cabinet,” he added. Johor has five representatives in the federal cabinet, four from Umno and one from MIC.
Three others are in the 29-member Cabinet are senators. There are also a total of 11 deputy ministers who are senators.
The BN lost four states and its customary two-thirds parliamentary majority in Election 2008, four years after Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi secured a 91 per cent mandate. Abdullah resigned as prime minister in April 2009 to make way for Najib.
In June, the Merdeka Center reported that it had polled 1,028 randomly selected voters in Peninsular Malaysia by telephone between May 6 and 16, just ahead of the Sibu by-election which BN lost.
Merdeka Center chief Ibrahim Suffian said that there is a sense that the public appreciates his efforts but they are also waiting to see if his initiatives, such as the government transformation programme, will be implemented successfully.
